I'm really curious about this new jingo-speak called 'dissipation'. It's as if the radiation spewing out from those reactor sites will just evaporate into something inert or harmless. I guess Chrenobyl being Russian radiation is tougher.

meninlove said I'm really curious about this new jingo-speak called 'dissipation'. It's as if the radiation spewing out from those reactor sites will just evaporate into something inert or harmless. I guess Chrenobyl being Russian radiation is tougher.

Not sure where the word was used, but yes, it will "evaporate" (so to speak) into something harmless (or sometimes less harmful first). That's the "half-life", and the word "decay" would be more appropriate.

(Note that chemical toxins, the kind spewed out daily, have no such built-in obsolescence (: ).

meninlove said I'm really curious about this new jingo-speak called 'dissipation'. It's as if the radiation spewing out from those reactor sites will just evaporate into something inert or harmless. I guess Chrenobyl being Russian radiation is tougher.

Not sure where the word was used, but yes, it will "evaporate" (so to speak) into something harmless (or sometimes less harmful first). That's the "half-life", and the word "decay" would be more appropriate.

(Note that chemical toxins, the kind spewed out daily, have no such built-in obsolescence (: ).

I think the initial radiation and ensuing half life etc is a rather *coughs* long period of time, no? Thinking of Chernobyl and last years forest fires releasing radiation. Funny how it hadn't dissipated in all that time.